Waistband stay

ABSTRACT

An economical waistband insert or stay for use in a waistband of a garment to help provide and maintain a neat appearance to the garments during wearing is disclosed. The waistband stay may be integrated with the waistband and of simple construction, to be worn on or as the inner surface of the waistband of a an apparel item or bottom garment (e.g., trousers, pants, shorts, skirt, etc.) and/or as the outer surface of the bottom of the wearer&#39;s top apparel item or garment (e.g., shirt, t-shirt, blouse, etc.) to limit and/or restrict the relative movement of the apparel items from sliding with respect to each other when a person moves such as while moving, reaching, standing, sitting or squatting. The waistband stay device may be produced separately from the garment and inserted or attached to the apparel item using an adhesive layer.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present disclosure and application claim priority to and the benefitof US provisional patent application Ser. No. 62/127640, filed Mar. 3,2015, to Manfred Becker and titled: WAISTBAND STAY the contents of whichare incorporated herein for all purposes.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to accessories for clothing. Moreparticularly, the present disclosure relates to improvements toaccessories for apparel and to apparel for providing a more comfortableand controlled fit of the apparel item during wear and use.

BACKGROUND

Personal appearance is of some importance in human society and culture.In some societies, the wearer of even informal clothing and apparel maybe expected to have a neat and clean appearance, and most individualsmake at least some attempt toward providing a neat and tidy appearancewith their clothing including to insure their shirt remains neat andtucked in the pants, trousers, skirt, etc.

The mainstream styles of apparel change with time—recently, there hasbeen a tendency toward less formality in business apparel. Even thewearing of jeans and other informal wear may be accepted in manyenvironments now, which environments previously required more formalattire.

Generally, some informal apparel does not require certain accessories(e.g., belts, suspenders, etc.) which might be expected or required withthe wearing of more formal attire. Depending upon the cut and fit ofsuch apparel, in many cases the fit around the waist and hips may besufficiently good that no belt may be required. In other instances, thetrousers or other apparel items may include sufficient elasticity at thewaist such that no belt may be required. This may be true for men'strousers and apparel as well as for women's apparel items such asskirts, dresses, slacks, etc.

Generally for some time now, apparel items such as slacks, pants,trousers or skirts may ride up and/or down vertically about the person'swaist when the person sits, bends at the waist, reaches, squats down orpartakes in other activities involving such movements. Inner orinvisible belts are generally known and have long been designed toattempt to move around the waist to attempt to adjust evenly and tolimit the apparel item from riding up or down. Since such devices havenot proven effective, generally, trousers or skirts must be readjustedalmost every time a person stands from a sitting or squatting positionif one desires to maintain the most professional and tidy appearance.

One drawback to such beltless attire may be that the waistband oftentends to gather or “bunch up” in the vertical direction, i.e., acrossits width, with no belt extending there around to provide some stay ofthe material in this direction. This may be particularly true when aperson may be seated or bends at the waist, as the front of the apparelwaistband tends to gather within the folds of the lower stomach and/ormidriff area of the body as the person bends at the waist. Often times,the resulting generally horizontal creases which form around the frontof the waistband, tend to be set in place if the person remains seatedfor some time (e.g., driving, working at a desk, etc.) and remain afterthe person stands, resulting in visibly unkempt appearance due to thewaistband creases.

Accordingly, there long remains an unmet need for a waistband stay foruse with trousers, skirts, and virtually any other apparel items orgarments that may be used by a person to prevent as many of the knownproblems and drawbacks during normal wear.

While there have been many attempts by others to solve problems in thesimilar area, there remains a need for a more effective solution. Forexample, U.S. Pat. No. 3,394,410, to Liebowitz discloses alongitudinally stiff stay which may flex more easily in left to rightorientation. The installation of the Liebowitz stay may be understood tobe with the stays having their elongate axis oriented generallyvertically, (i.e., parallel to the height of the wearer), rather thanextending circumferentially there around, as in the present waistbandstay. This may be opposite the present stay construction, with itsflexible nature along its elongate axis allowing it to curve around thewaistband of the apparel, while still providing sufficient lateralstiffness as to generally preclude folding or creasing of the waistband.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,723,993 issued on Apr. 3, 1973 to Burton B. Ruby, titled“Trousers Waistband Structure,” discloses an elastic waistband assembledintegrally with the trousers. The flexible elastic nature of the Rubywaistband construction, teaches away from the lateral stiffnessdisclosed in the Liebowitz reference. U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,366 issued onAug. 13, 1996 to Kohji Kato, titled “Elastic Waist Structure ForTrousers And Skirts,” discloses a garment construction having one ormore elastic bands installed along the waistband of the garment. Theelastic bands are concealed by fabric covers to provide a finishedappearance for the garment. Kato discloses that slidable inner fabricpanels “prevents formation of wrinkles or furrows outside the trousersor skirt” (Abstract), but it has not been proven in practice. Similarly,U.S. Pat. No. 5,867,836 issued on Feb. 9, 1999 to Luis F. Quinones,titled “Waist Band Trouser Or Skirt Holder,” discloses a waistbandconstruction in which a separate waistband may be removably secured tothe inner waistband of the trousers. Quinones further discloses that theseparate waistband includes an elastic band which allows the separatestructure to remain in place around the wearer's waist as he or she sitsor squats, with the trousers moving as required to accommodate theflexure of the wearer's body. The elastic then draws the trousers backto their original position when the wearer stands. The Quinoneswaistband structure may be thus directed to controlling verticalmovement of the trousers, particularly at the back, where tensile forcestend to draw down the back of the waistband when the wearer sits orbends at the waist.

U. S. Pat. No. 6,253,384 issued on Jul. 3, 2001 to Peter J. Valentino,titled “Partial, Removable, Reusable Waistband And Its Holder,”describes a waistband having an adhesive coating on each side thereof.The Valentino waistband may be intended to be adhesively secured withina trouser waistband, and adhesively secures the upper garment (shirt,etc.) within the waistband of the lower garment. The Valentino adhesivewaistband may be only a partial device, as noted, and may be intendedfor use at the back of the upper and lower garment interface, wheretensile forces are applied which tend to pull the upper garment from thelower garment as the wearer bends at the waist. This may be unrelated tothe problem addressed by the present invention, wherein the present stayincreases the frictional force at the interface of the abrasive materialand the wearer's skin or the wearer's shirt or blouse tucked within theskirt or trousers of the wearer to preclude gathering, creasing, andwrinkling thereof as the clothing may be compressed at the front or rearas the wearer bends or sits.

SUMMARY

The device of the present disclosure alleviates various problems of theprior art device by providing an economical insert stay for use in awaistband of a garment to help provide and maintain a neat appearance tothe garments during wearing. The waistband stay may be integrated withthe waistband and of simple construction, to be worn on or as the innersurface of the waistband of a an apparel item or bottom garment (e.g.,trousers, pants, shorts, skirt, etc.) and/or as the outer surface of thebottom of the wearer's top apparel item or garment (e.g., shirt,t-shirt, blouse, etc.) to limit and/or restrict the relative movement ofthe apparel items from sliding with respect to each other when a personmoves such as while moving, reaching, standing, sitting or squatting.The waistband stay device may be produced separately from the garmentand inserted or attached to the apparel item using an adhesive layer.

The disclosed waistband stay device may also prevent compressivewrinkling of the waistband particularly at the front of the garment,where such wrinkling would otherwise occur when the wearer bends at thewaist.

The present disclosure relates generally to a waistband stay device foruse with the waistband and/or top apparel item for maintaining therelative positions of the top (e.g., shirt or blouse) and the bottom(e.g., trousers, short, skirt, etc.) apparel items or garments duringmovement while wearing the garment including the waistband stay device.The waistband stay device may also prevent the top from slidingexcessively upwards relative to the bottom when the wearer sits, squatsor bends and otherwise moves while wearing the garments. The waistbandstay device may include a strip of material or pad that may bepermanently attached to the inside surface of the waistband of thetrousers or skirt near the top edge. The waistband insert strip ofmaterial may be in the form of a continuous piece that extendscompletely around the waistband or, alternatively, may be in the form ofa plurality of strips of material or pad inserts or segments that arelocated, spaced about the waistband of the garment.

The waistband stay device may have a first side and a second side andmay be composed of a variety of materials and/or layers of materials.The waistband stay device may include a first or base layer of a woven,cotton material having a first side thereof and may have an adhesivematerial coated thereon for securely and permanently attaching thewaistband stay to the inner surface at or near a top edge of thewaistband. The adhesive coating the first or inner surface of the firstbase layer may be of any known and appropriate material but mayalternately be secured to the apparel item using any known andappropriate device, material, coupling or other attaching means. Thesecond side of the first base layer strip of material may be coated withan adhesive material including a suspension of an abrasive material thatmay be coated thereon for directly bonding the abrasive material to theouter surface of the second side of the strip of material waistband stayusing any convenient bonding technique that may be conventionallyavailable in the art. When the waistband strip of material may beproperly attached to the inner surface of the waistband of the garmentat or near the top thereof, the coated abrasive material will provide africtional drag against the wearer's body or against another garment,shirt or blouse, worn by the wearer and tucked inside of the waistband.The frictional drag created by the abrasive surface of the strip ofmaterial will help to limit the relative movement of the pants or skirtwith respect to the shirt or blouse to reduce and/or eliminate the needof the wearer from constantly pushing “tucking in” a pulled out shirt,blouse, or other garment.

The above and other aspects of the present disclosure will become moreapparent from the following description of the preferred embodimenttaken together with the accompanying drawings and the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure may take physical form in certain parts andarrangement of parts, a preferred embodiment of which will be describedin detail in the specification and illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings which form a part thereof, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a front perspective view of a pair of trousers having an innerwaistband surface area including an integrated waistband stay strip ofmaterial according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a front perspective view of a pair of trousers having an innerwaistband surface area including an added plurality waistband staystrips of material having an alternate shape and adhered to thewaistband area of the trousers according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a front perspective view of trousers having an inner waistbandsurface area including an added plurality waistband stay strips ofmaterial having an alternate shape and adhered to the waistband area ofthe trousers according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a front plan view of differing size waistband stay strips ofmaterial having a further alternate shape and located on a peel awaysubstrate according to an alternate embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 5 is a front perspective view of a waistband stay strip of materialof FIG. 4 shown at an extreme magnification according to an embodimentof the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring now to all of the figures and initially in particular to FIGS.1 through 3, there is illustrated a waistband stay device 10 forproviding better holding of a bottom garment 18 (e.g., pants, jeans,trousers, slacks, kilt, shorts, or skirt, etc.) to limit the relativedisplacement of a top garment (e.g., top, t-shirt, dress shirt, blouse,etc.) with respect to the bottom garment 18.

The strip of material 12 of the device 10 may include opposing surfaces19 and 20 one of which may include an abrasive material 21 and the otherthereof may include a coating of an adhesive material for securing thedevice 10 to the inner surface 14 of the waistband of the garment 18.The strip of material 12 may include a woven material including any typeor combination of materials including cotton, polyester, rayon,microfiber and/or any combination thereof to provide the device 10 to beintegrated into the garment. More particularly, the strip of material 12of the device 10 may include a first surface or side 19 which mayinclude the abrasive material 21 located thereon and the other or secondside 20 may include the adhesive 22 for adhering the device 10 to thegarment 18. The device 10 may also be secured to the garment 18 usingany known or appropriate device, coupling or mechanism such as bystitching 11 as shown in FIG. 2. Additionally, the device 10 may also bemade integral with the garment 18 during production of the entiregarment 18 such that the device 10 is made an integral portion of theconstruction of the garment 18 and included in the sale thereof.

The abrasive material 21 may be any one or a combination of a siliconcarbide, an aluminum oxide, diamond, and/or any similar abrasive havinggenerally, approximately a sixty (60) microns particle size on averageand most preferably within a range of +/− approximately 4 microns. Theabrasive material 21 may be bonded on the strip of material 12 using anyknown or appropriate adhesive material 27 which will include theabrasive material 21 in suspension and may be spray coated on the strip12 of the device 10 and then allowed to dry (and/or be cured) to securethe abrasive material 21 to the surface of the strip 12 as best shown inFIG. 4. The adhesive material 27 for adhering the abrasive material 21to the surface of the strip 12 may preferably be applied using a spraycoating process.

The first surface 19 of the strip of material 12 of the device 10including the abrasive material 21 may be defined as a frictional meansfor creating sufficient friction at the interface of the bottom garment18 and a top garment so that when worn by a user, the first surface 19of the device 10 will be forced against the top garment (and/or viceversa) while the second surface 20 of the device 10 will be secured tothe inner surface 14 of the garment 18. It should also be understoodthat the shape (round, rectangular, square, triangular, oblong,elliptical, etc.) and size of the waistband stay device 10 may be of anytype as shown in FIGS. 1 through 3. Referring in particular to FIG. 4,it is disclosed wherein each waistband stay device 10 may be initiallyand removably adhered to a plastic substrate 23. Once removed from thesubstrate 23, each waistband stay device 10 may be applied to thewaistband of the garment 18 such that the adhesive 22 of the second side20 of the strip of material 12 may adhesively secure the device 10 tothe garment 18. Once the waistband stay device 10 is secured to thegarment, 18, the frictional interface of the abrasive material 21 of thestrip 12 against the top garment will create sufficient friction andfrictional force to limit and/or prevent the top garment from movingwith respect to the bottom garment 18 during wearing of the garments, tothereby better maintain the neat and “tucked-in” appearance of theperson wearing the top and bottom garments.

Once the waistband stay device 10 is installed in the garment 18, andthe garment 18 located about the waist of the person and over the lowerportion of a top garment (i.e., the shirt is tucked into the pants), thewaistband stay device 10 will act to prevent slipping of the top garmentwith respect to the bottom garment 18 (i.e., to limit the top garmentfrom moving from its originally adjusted position on the wearer). Anytug or pull on the top garment will be resisted and limited by thewaistband stay device 10 coupled to the bottom garment 18 due to thefrictional interface of the abrasive material 21 on the surface 19 thatabuts the respective clothing or garment of the wearer.

While a particular embodiment of the present invention has been shownand described, it may be to be understood that the present invention maybe not limited to the embodiments described above, but encompasses anyand all embodiments within the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A waistband stay comprising: a strip of materialhaving a first surface to be secured to an inner surface of a garment,the at least one strip of material further having an opposing surface;an abrasive material attached to the opposing surface of the strip ofmaterial, the abrasive material having an average particle size ofapproximately 60 microns; an adhesive material for securing the strip ofmaterial to the inner surface of the garment; and wherein the abrasivematerial extends outwardly from the opposing surface of the strip ofmaterial for providing frictional engagement at an interface of opposingexterior surfaces of garments to be worn by a wearer.
 2. A garmentincluding the waistband stay device of claim
 1. 3. The garment of claim2 wherein the garment is a pants including a waistband and wherein thewaistband stay device is for application to the waistband of the pants.4. The garment of claim 2 wherein the garment is a shirt including alower portion and wherein the waistband stay device is for applicationto the lower portion of the shirt.
 5. The garment of claim 2 wherein theabrasive material has an average particle size of approximately 60microns within a range of +/− approximately 4 microns.
 6. The garment ofclaim 3 wherein the abrasive material has an average particle size ofapproximately 60 microns within a range of +/− approximately 4 microns.7. The garment of claim 4 wherein the abrasive material has an averageparticle size of approximately 60 microns within a range of +/−approximately 4 microns.